August 2, 2024, 4:22 PM
August 2, 2024, 4:22 PM
This Friday, Santa Cruz concentrates 29 active forest fires distributed across 12 municipalities and five provinces in the department. According to the report of the Forest Fire Early Warning System (Satif), a total of 14,897 hot spots were recorded today in the region, bringing the number of hot spots accumulated in the month to more than 28,000, more than 200,000 so far this year.
The affected provinces are: Angel Sandoval, Velasco, German Busch, Chiquitos, Guarayos, Ñuflo de Chavez and Warnes. The most impacted municipalities are San Matias, San Ignacio, Puerto Suarez, Robore, San Jose, Puerto Quijarro, Conception, El Puente, San Javier, San Ramon and San Rafael.
“In particular, San Matias, San Ignacio, Puerto Suarez, Robore, San Rafael and El Puente “They have the largest burned areas,” Claure explained.
Earlier, Julieta Valverde, director of Natural Resources (Direna) of the Government, reported that almost half a million hectares have been consumed by fire.
“50 percent is in the municipality of San Matías,” The fire in San Matías started in the community of Pozones and has spread towards Candelaria, now advancing towards the south and east of the municipality.
The situation is aggravated by strong winds, which fan the flames, making the work of the brigades difficult. Valverde regretted that the fires are caused by human activities and assured that the Government sends the alert as soon as it detects the heat source, which allows for immediate response to the emergency.
Compared to 2019, a critical year in terms of forest fires, Valverde warned that This year could be even worse due to extreme drought and the high number of hot spots.
“In 2019, in September, we had 106,000 hot spots and more than two million hectares affected. Now, at the beginning of August, we have almost reached 500,000 hectares burned,” he explained.
United States sends support
In response to the forest fires and the request of the Government of Bolivia to the Group of Partners for the Development of Bolivia (GruS), the Government of the United States delivered to the Government of Santa Cruz, material and equipment valued at $us 30,000, to fight fires.
The team is composed of: Fire extinguishers, helmets, safety glasses, water pumps in backpacks, rakes and camp radios with VHF antennas, power supplies and accessories for them, as well as technical service for installation and programming of the radios and maintenance of repeaters donated in previous years.
